Akrapovic for Ferrari F8 Tributo

Akrapovič: 30 Years of Building a Heritage

Akrapovič is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2021. The beginnings of the world-famous manufacturer of high-
performance exhaust systems go back to even before its formal incorporation in the spring of 1991, when operations

started in a workshop just over a kilometre away from its current headquarters at Ivančna Gorica.

Igor Akrapovič was a motorcycle racer who already tuned motorcycles during his racing career to make them even faster.
At first, he worked on his own machines, but later he also started tuning those of others, even his rivals. It was this
passion for technology and constant improvement of motorcycle components that made him decide to start his own
business and dedicate his future to developing high-performance exhaust systems.

Exhaust systems were where Igor Akrapovič saw his greatest opportunity because at that time there was little
competition on the market, but substantial room for improvement. He initially focused on racing motorcycle exhaust
systems, building a rich tradition of state-of-the-art products, from which he soon expanded into the mainstream
motorcycle market, as well as the car market later on.

Three decades after its inception, the company is operating at two state-of-the-art production sites in Slovenia, with over
1,300 employees. The facilities at the company’s headquarters in Ivančna Gorica comprise an in-house titanium foundry,
a durability dyno on which a robot rides the motorcycle, a metallurgical lab, an R&D department, and a racing
department. The entire production, from tube making to final assembly, takes places in a large production hall at
Črnomelj.

The company continued to develop, and the increasing demand for its products forced it to expand its premises, which it
continually furnished with state-of-the-art equipment required to develop and manufacture its products. Throughout, a
special culture has been built inside the company rooted in the employees’ desire to offer customers exhaust systems
and other products of the highest quality.
This commitment to constantly invest in the development of products and the technology required to manufacture them
has been inseparably connected with racing, which provides the perfect laboratory for testing technical and
technological solutions and materials.

The first victory at a world championship race on an Akrapovič-outfitted motorcycle was secured by Akira Yanagawa
(Kawasaki) in WorldSBK in 1997, and the first world championship title won on a motorcycle featuring the Slovenian
manufacturer’s exhaust system was recorded in 2000, when Akrapovič brand ambassador Colin Edwards triumphed in
the WorldSBK on his Honda.

“Back in the beginning, I was tuning complete motorcycles and using the money I earned to compete in races. Tuning
was almost as interesting to me as racing itself, and so it was kind of natural for me to buy a tube bending machine.
That’s how it all started. I look back at the company’s three decades of development, especially its racing history, with
great pride because races are the toughest testing ground for a product.” – Igor Akrapovič